T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA
St. Clairsville-Richland City School District assistant superintendent Christina Laudermilt informs parents at the school board’s meeting that a counseling service called Hello Hero will be implemented in the elementary school after winter break.
ST. CLAIRSVILLE — For the second meeting in a row, it was standing-room only during Wednesday evening’s St.Clairsville-Richland City School District School Board meeting.
The crowded meeting stemmed from a student committing suicide last month.
Assistant superintendent Christina Laudermilt said that, last week, the board met with mental health professionals and parents to discuss what steps the board should take to provide the services that have been requested by the parents and mental health professionals.
“So we know at the high school, we have tier one and tier three covered. We were lacking tier two. We did have a conversation with ESC behavioral health and wellness coordinator Geena Jarvie, who will be providing those services for the remainder of the school year for both middle school and high school,” Laudermilt said.
During last month’s school board meeting, Jarvie explained the tier programs the parents and professionals are requesting for the school.
The tier one services are universal mental health support. All students are required to receive tier one, and it is to promote all overall wellness and prevent problems before they start. Tier two is targeted mental health support.
It’s geared towards students that show early signs of struggle or mild to moderate needs, and provides early, short term assistance before issues escalate.
Tier three is intensive mental health support. This tier is implemented when a student with significant, ongoing crisis-level mental health needs intensive and often long term care.
Since the school didn’t have a tier two service, it’s run through Cedar Ridge after a referral from Jarvie.
“We feel like that part has been fulfilled for the remainder of the school year. And then, in addition to that, I’ve reached out to a company called Hello Hero,” Laudermilt said. “Hello Hero offers tier one, two and three services. And we wanted to, kind of like, see how this went. So since our elementary school has tier one, provided by the ESC, as well as [guidance counselor] Mrs. [Dana] Gallagher.”
She added that the Hello Hero program will start at the elementary school after winter break and will continue for the remainder of this school year.
Hello Hero is an on-campus mental and behavioral health clinic for school districts throughout the northeast United States.
“They will provide tier one, tier two and tier three services and will start the implementation and onboarding process over the next couple of weeks with myself, and then they will be ready to go in January, when the kids come back from Christmas break,” Laudermilt said.
Parent Kayla Kidd asked Laudermilt, since Hello Hero is based out of New York, if a counselor from the organization will be onsite for the school.
Laudermilt replied that a counselor will be in the school five days a week.
She added that, this year in the elementary school, there will be a test and if it goes well in the elementary school Hello Hero will be implemented in the middle school and high school for the 2026-27 school year.
Parent Tiffany Beck said that she still has concern because just this past September her child reached out to a staff member at the school multiple times expressing that she needed to talk to a tier two counselor.
“She expressed needing to talk, being very upset, and wanting to hurt herself. She got one email response back from the staff member stating that she would be pulled after her lunch, and she would be talked to. She was not pulled for that meeting or a single time after either. Nor were my husband and I aware of this. We were only aware of these emails and the referral forms after our child was in the hospital due to suicidal attempt,” Beck said. “We then searched and found the emails and the referral forms to the school email. Again, it was not brought to our attention until she was being seen and hospitalized.”
She added that she’s not at the meeting to place blame on anyone or say that anything that is in place is not working, but does feel that if the staff had taken action in communicating with her and her child after those emails and referrals were sent that she could have gotten her child the help that was needed before it reached the point of her attempting suicide.
“I just want to make sure that there are never any referrals or anything spoken that is ignored or overlooked,” Beck said.
Board president Michael Jacob asked Beck to speak to him after the meeting and he appreciated her being at the meeting.
“We’ll take this opportunity to look into it, so thank you,” Jacob said.
Kidd then asked the board if the school has any plans on being more transparent if a tragedy like this were to ever happen again.
She said that the parents heard about the recent suicide through social media instead of hearing it from the school.
Board member Floyd Marody replied that the board feels that it’s walking a tightrope of wanting to be transparent while also wanting to keep the family’s privacy intact without creating gossip.
He added that the board wouldn’t want to put out a OneCall which is the district’s parent broadcasting system that calls all of the students parents.
Kidd replied that she isn’t suggesting a OneCall to the parents but gossip and rumors occurred without the board informing the parents.
Parent Bonnie Ossichak replied that she believes that a OneCall should take place.
“You could call the parents to let them know. So as a parent, I could sit down with my kid and be like, ‘Hey, someone in your school died by suicide.’ Because realistically, they’re coming to school and finding out someone died by suicide. So it’s the same message, but I think they just want to hear it from people that are close to them,” Ossichak said.
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